The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Electoral College should be dismantled

El Presidente’s declaration of a national “emergency,” delivered in his usual tortured syntax and devoid of course, of accurate facts, attempted to bend everyone’s attention toward the imaginary invasion at our southern border by the unwashed hordes of Central America.

That’s the magic of Trump. Magic is an art of distraction and misdirection. Our Magician In Chief’s political sleight of hand is being performed to misdirect our scrutiny away from the real crisis threatening our republic.

Our voter’s franchise is under assault. The votes of every American are the roots of our tree of liberty from which all branches of governance spring. The Republican party has been steadily chopping away at the heart of that tree, the very heart of our democracy.

Through ostensibly legal voter suppression legislation and corrupt manipulation of voter registration rolls, the Republican party machine has hijacked the electoral process in order to disenfranchise those social blocs likely to vote against them.

The last mid-term elections exposed egregious, corrupt, criminal attempts by Republican candidates and their agencies in Virginia and 24 other states, to suppress or manipulate the minority vote, and make voter registration and the ability to vote more difficult.

Progressive weakening of voter’s rights, ruthless gerrymandering and inadequate campaign finance regulation are dangerously weakening the American electorate. Can this bare knuckled assault upon the citizen franchise be defeated before it fatally compromises our constitutional democracy?

It can. By our recently refreshed Congress. The Dems intend to introduce as their first piece of legislation, democracy reform bill HR-1 titled the “For The People Act.” This landmark legislation will expand voter’s rights, streamline voter registration, bolster ethics rules, reinforce election security, curb gerrymandering and revamp how campaigns are funded.

The Brennan Center For Justice website nicely parses the content and intent of HR-1.

Mitch McConnell, lead Republican congressional tool, states that any such legislation would be a “Democratic party power grab.”

Hmm. That has a nice ring to it. We the people should indeed, through our Congressional delegates, democratically take back for ourselves the process that would best make us a society whose total popular vote will not be distorted by electoral corruption or diluted by an obsolete Electoral College system that should be dismantled and legislated away into history.